As one who has suffered from anxiety/ depression, on and off, for a good part of my life I conducted a percentile analysis this year (on anxiolictics prescribed, no a/d s) and also do a lot of cognitive therapy. I came up with a mood average of 63% for the year thus far.

The highest day was 68%, just one for year,and the lowest 55%.
I realize this is very subjective as 60% to some maybe a %0% to others;xtremes.
such as 10-20%/ 80-100% did not enter the equation.

This last year was my best for many and was wondering how other older people would stack up. I would really like to feel a little better more often, but don't want to be greedy. I have been benzodiazepine dependent, low dose,varied, for over 40 years.

The one anti depressant that really helped me, Serzone, was taken off Oz mkt due to spate of acute live failures. A few wines 4v5 evenings cheers for a few hours but this is not the best options.

Don't want to sound like a whiner,or wino, and would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks guys.

63 isn't bad, especially if it's up from last year. What i'm a bit concerned about is the narrow range - no big dips, which is good, but no real highs, either, which is not so good. This sounds a bit like drug-induced flattening... but then, i don't know what scale you're using, or if you're being over-cautious in the numbers you record. (People do that - sort of like a superstitious avoidance of painting the devil on the wall.) Anyway, aim for a few peaks into the 70's, right?

Couple of ways to go about it:
If you keep a mood graph, you probably also have a journal. That should show a pattern of activities or encounters that correspond to the higher and lower numbers. Patterns are reproducible and amplifiable.
Anything creative - sculpture, model planes, knitting, collage, playing the triangle .... it doesn't have to be great, just try stuff and make things and empower your aesthetic side.
Exercise - swimming, running, judo, soccer - again, it doesn't matter whether you're any good at it, or whether you do it alone or in a team, just so you get those endorphins pumping.
Enough rest, sleep and contemplative down-time with no stress of challenges. You know by now that the main trick to coping is balance.

One person i knew did quite well on paxil; another can't take any anti-depressants for bad side effects (some very bad! like, irreversible tinnitis after only a few weeks... so, read the warnings). This person benefits from support groups - mindfulness, chronic pain, anxiety - whatever is going in their area; doesn't matter what it's called or who sponsors it, because the members recommend other groups to one another, so they're constantly re-forming and moving on. The idea is really just to stop feeling isolated, get out and make contact at least once a week, and have a chance to unload and share information and strategies. Plus, it can become a social thing - some of them go walking or have pot-luck meals together.
ETA Another thing about groups is that you get fresh reactions to how you present yourself and your symptoms. Sometimes live feedback is helpful in changing perspective.

(02-12-2011 03:23 PM)Peterkin Wrote: 63 isn't bad, especially if it's up from last year. What i'm a bit concerned about is the narrow range - no big dips, which is good, but no real highs, either, which is not so good. This sounds a bit like drug-induced flattening... but then, i don't know what scale you're using, or if you're being over-cautious in the numbers you record. (People do that - sort of like a superstitious avoidance of painting the devil on the wall.) Anyway, aim for a few peaks into the 70's, right?

Couple of ways to go about it:
If you keep a mood graph, you probably also have a journal. That should show a pattern of activities or encounters that correspond to the higher and lower numbers. Patterns are reproducible and amplifiable.
Anything creative - sculpture, model planes, knitting, collage, playing the triangle .... it doesn't have to be great, just try stuff and make things and empower your aesthetic side.
Exercise - swimming, running, judo, soccer - again, it doesn't matter whether you're any good at it, or whether you do it alone or in a team, just so you get those endorphins pumping.
Enough rest, sleep and contemplative down-time with no stress of challenges. You know by now that the main trick to coping is balance.

One person i knew did quite well on paxil; another can't take any anti-depressants for bad side effects (some very bad! like, irreversible tinnitis after only a few weeks... so, read the warnings). This person benefits from support groups - mindfulness, chronic pain, anxiety - whatever is going in their area; doesn't matter what it's called or who sponsors it, because the members recommend other groups to one another, so they're constantly re-forming and moving on. The idea is really just to stop feeling isolated, get out and make contact at least once a week, and have a chance to unload and share information and strategies. Plus, it can become a social thing - some of them go walking or have pot-luck meals together.
ETA Another thing about groups is that you get fresh reactions to how you present yourself and your symptoms. Sometimes live feedback is helpful in changing perspective.

Yeah, i figured.
Unfortunately, depression doesn't seem to be something that ever gets cured. You just keep finding different - hopefully better - ways to control it instead of letting it control you. The good news is, there is quite a lot you can do. If a strategy doesn't work for everyone, it may still work for someone; something that didn't help last time around, might if you try it again.

Suffered from major depressive disorder for several decades with several suicidal contemplation periods (not out of despair, but more out of what the fuck's the point and I got all ths life insurance and all). Wellbutrin kept me here but just masked it without alleviating it. Lithium works nicely as a dampening agent, but I didn't like being dampened. What worked for me was testosterone. When I elevated my T levels back to where they were when I first formulated this particularly dismal world view some 30 years ago when I was a teenager, my depression was completely alleviated. No more SSRI's for me. Your mileage may vary.

As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

(02-12-2011 01:11 AM)Mr Woof Wrote: I have been benzodiazepine dependent, low dose,varied, for over 40 years.

The one anti depressant that really helped me, Serzone, was taken off Oz mkt due to spate of acute live failures. A few wines 4v5 evenings cheers for a few hours but this is not the best options.

Don't want to sound like a whiner,or wino, and would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks guys.

Yikes, I just started on a benzo "as needed", and had no idea I might need it for the next 40 years. I'm also on Wellbutrin for depression, which is nice because it doesn't steal your libido like the SSRI's. Buspar for anxiety seems to be doing the trick too. But that stuff is all just to save my life, as the only other way to stop the pain would be to stop breathing. It also took about 6 different meds before this batch started working for me, with no guarantee the good times will continue.
But the meds don't help with quality of life. I'm thankful for a therapist and good friends and plenty of activity, both physical and mental, to improve the stuff the meds can't change.

It was just a fucking apple man, we're sorry okay? Please stop the madness
~Izel

(02-12-2011 01:11 AM)Mr Woof Wrote: I have been benzodiazepine dependent, low dose,varied, for over 40 years.

The one anti depressant that really helped me, Serzone, was taken off Oz mkt due to spate of acute live failures. A few wines 4v5 evenings cheers for a few hours but this is not the best options.

Don't want to sound like a whiner,or wino, and would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks guys.

Yikes, I just started on a benzo "as needed", and had no idea I might need it for the next 40 years. I'm also on Wellbutrin for depression, which is nice because it doesn't steal your libido like the SSRI's. Buspar for anxiety seems to be doing the trick too. But that stuff is all just to save my life, as the only other way to stop the pain would be to stop breathing. It also took about 6 different meds before this batch started working for me, with no guarantee the good times will continue.
But the meds don't help with quality of life. I'm thankful for a therapist and good friends and plenty of activity, both physical and mental, to improve the stuff the meds can't change.

Hi Erxomai.
Benzodiazepines can be very addictive and some people can experience quite severe withdrawal symptoms. If taken as needed, for panic attacks occsionally there may be not too much of a build up. Xanax is often used for panic attacks.
In longer term use diazepam is usually the drug of choice as it has a very long half life and this helps reduce withdrawal effects.

Peterkin's advice was pretty good; besides meds we need to keep looking at ourselves and learning as best we can

Besides drug dependency and side effects, the biggest danger is making depression the center of one's life. Letting it define you, identifying with it. It will try to take over! You need to work, all the time, on being in charge, making up your own definition of self outside of, exclusive of, depression. Putting it in a bag that you carry. You may be stuck carrying it forever, but it's a bag, not a hump! There is at least a possibility of putting it down, temporarily, for a minute, a day.... and maybe, one time, forgetting to pick it up again.

(03-12-2011 10:36 AM)Peterkin Wrote: Besides drug dependency and side effects, the biggest danger is making depression the center of one's life. Letting it define you, identifying with it. It will try to take over! You need to work, all the time, on being in charge, making up your own definition of self outside of, exclusive of, depression. Putting it in a bag that you carry. You may be stuck carrying it forever, but it's a bag, not a hump! There is at least a possibility of putting it down, temporarily, for a minute, a day.... and maybe, one time, forgetting to pick it up again.

Hi Peterkin.
Back to the sound coverage in your first post.

As for tinnitus, my wife has sufferd from that for many years and finds the herbal remedy Tebonin Gingo Biloba 76 somewhat helpful.

As you point out, with anti depressants it is very much a matter of finding one tailor made to suit. In my personal opinion the old tri cyclics such as tryptanol are better for really severe depression, despite, or perhaps because of the strong side effects.
A sort of jolt back maybe.

As for side effects, counter indications, causes of other things......YES you do need to be very careful. "May cause diaorrhea, constipation, insomnia, sleepiness etc------God, surely not all at once!

As for overcrowding depression with other things; not at all easy, but definitely the way to go. Unless one feels really terrible it is better to force any type of constructive action rather than just lie down.

Yes 63% is'nt bad on a years average of about 3.5 mgs daily diazepam.
I am no fan of Big Pharma but am contemplating a short Zoloft or Prozac trial just to see if I can sneak into the 70s....... my age next year.

(02-12-2011 11:52 PM)Mr Woof Wrote:

(02-12-2011 08:59 PM)Erxomai Wrote:

(02-12-2011 01:11 AM)Mr Woof Wrote: I have been benzodiazepine dependent, low dose,varied, for over 40 years.

The one anti depressant that really helped me, Serzone, was taken off Oz mkt due to spate of acute live failures. A few wines 4v5 evenings cheers for a few hours but this is not the best options.

Don't want to sound like a whiner,or wino, and would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks guys.

Yikes, I just started on a benzo "as needed", and had no idea I might need it for the next 40 years. I'm also on Wellbutrin for depression, which is nice because it doesn't steal your libido like the SSRI's. Buspar for anxiety seems to be doing the trick too. But that stuff is all just to save my life, as the only other way to stop the pain would be to stop breathing. It also took about 6 different meds before this batch started working for me, with no guarantee the good times will continue.
But the meds don't help with quality of life. I'm thankful for a therapist and good friends and plenty of activity, both physical and mental, to improve the stuff the meds can't change.

Hi Erxomai.
Benzodiazepines can be very addictive and some people can experience quite severe withdrawal symptoms. If taken as needed, for panic attacks occsionally there may be not too much of a build up. Xanax is often used for panic attacks.
In longer term use diazepam is usually the drug of choice as it has a very long half life and this helps reduce withdrawal effects.

Peterkin's advice was pretty good; besides meds we need to keep looking at ourselves and learning as best we can

I found Cognitive Therapy, self applied, quite helpful.

RE benzos they're no panacea for inner caused probbies; they have been around for over 50years and if used very carefully, along with working on your self can have some benefits in my view.

A good doctor is very important; if he/she picks up the pad as you walk in the door, consults with the computer and not you----walk!

(02-12-2011 04:31 PM)GirlyMan Wrote: Suffered from major depressive disorder for several decades with several suicidal contemplation periods (not out of despair, but more out of what the fuck's the point and I got all ths life insurance and all). Wellbutrin kept me here but just masked it without alleviating it. Lithium works nicely as a dampening agent, but I didn't like being dampened. What worked for me was testosterone. When I elevated my T levels back to where they were when I first formulated this particularly dismal world view some 30 years ago when I was a teenager, my depression was completely alleviated. No more SSRI's for me. Your mileage may vary.

Picked up a stubby of this in Melbourne and thought it might amuse you. EX wife Bitter[size=medium ]Nothing colder than an ex.

Don't think it will go down well with the ladies!
[/i][/size]

[i]She drives me to drink with her bitterness and lies
Her thirst for revenge can make this man cry
Shes the unrestrained vengeful feminist sprite
who inspired the fermented brew we drink tonight.

I'll offer some data from amateur science; and while electromagnetic communication has yet to be verified, it makes a lot of sense. Which is to say, being around other people is another way to modulate mood.

With me, it's that dang Gwynnies. Sometimes I get so "high" off that girl, I get up off my chair and go to my buddy's house to come down. People have not evolved to live in isolation, and being around other people is a natural mood enhancer and stabilizer. (I'm not a fan of Big Pharma at all, although their products work for some)